By Jim Shields, Managing Director of U.K.-based Twist & Shout - a KnowBe4 company. When we first created Restricted Intelligence over seven years ago, we had no idea it would be so popular, ands end up running to seven hilarious and educational seasons. That’s 40 plus episodes y’all!
So – when we were in preparations for shooting our 2020 shooting of Season 7, we were excited. The plan was to shoot around June this year in the UK and US locations – but of course, that destroyer of plans, hopes and dreams – COVID-19 – rolled into town like a juggernaut.
On 23rd March, our mop-topped Prime Minister announced that we were to engage in a national lockdown – a series of mandatory policies affecting movement, gatherings of any kind, and business activities. And we all knew that this was the appropriate response. Pretty much anything that meant travelling, gathering and being close contact with others, was off the table. Which meant that our plans to shoot season 7 were looking pretty shaky.
As the weeks rolled on, we took the decision to try to engage with the situation and add an episode all about working from home. We wanted to see if we could create a swiftly made, dedicated episode to support the users of all of our customers in a way that was entertaining and funny – a light-hearted break from the rather bleak news reporting hitting our screens world wide.
Within days our creative team had come up with an idea, and our talented writer Rob McCollum has drafted a witty and on-point script that needed just little tweaking. But we had questions:
- How can we shoot across multiple locations during lockdown?
- How could we guarantee the safety of our cast and crew?
- How small a team were we allowed to have on site?
- Would there still be snacks…?*
- Where would the wrap party be?*
(*- Those were just me…)
The decision was made to adapt the script to be conducted entirely as a complete Zoom call. By recording each contributor (our illustrious cast members) separately, at home, and them synching them up in a specially designed “fake” online video conference service, we’d be able to keep crew and travel to a minimum.
Then we were reminded about how resourceful our cast members could be, AND how great the footage filmed on an iPhone or modern Laptop could also be – that’s when we were able to eliminate the crew all together. We’d have each cast member record themselves, with myself directing over Zoom. It look a lot of planning, test recordings and trial and error, but we got there.
It was incredible. Everyone opened up their homes to us (remotely speaking) and battled with the tech to create fantastic performances they could upload to us via the internet. In this way our intrepid editor, Richard Leverton, was able to synchronise ALL of these six separate performances into what seemed like a real, live recording of a now all-too-familiar zoom meeting. In my opinion, Richard’s work on this was nothing short of magical. Helped by the rest of the team to get backgrounds (we even tried some green-screen) and graphics, we were thrilled with the result…
The final episode was one we didn’t expect to make, in circumstances we didn’t expect to meet, with restrictions we never faced before – and the result was outstanding. AND – everyone stayed safe throughout the entire production.
Congratulations and massive praise for the team, lets hope we have helped our customers and users stay cyber safe at this testing time. Stay safe and healthy – we’re all in this together. Here is a fun promo video from Twist & Shout!
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